Nuns beat me, says restaurateur

An Italian man has claimed he was beaten up by two 83-year-old nuns and a priest in a row over the ownership of a restaurant in a small southern town.

Aniello Esposito, 49, told police he arrived at the restaurant he runs in Rutino in Campania to find the three throwing furniture into the street and smashing plates.

When he tried to intervene the priest knocked him to the ground with a chair and the two nuns began to kick him, he claimed.

Esposito was taken to hospital in an ambulance after the incident a month ago, where doctors found neck and abdominal contusions, according to his hospital file.

The mother superior of the local convent of the Disciples of Saint Teresa, home to the nuns, yesterday said the nuns had started to remove furniture from the restaurant because the premises were owned by the convent and had been occupied illegally by Esposito.

But a lawyer representing the nuns, Gaetano Di Vietri, denied his clients had attacked Esposito.

"The nuns and the priest arrived to find a wall had been knocked down and seating installed. I don't know how this man was hurt, but the two nuns are both 83 and did not cause any injury."

Esposito said he had rented the premises in good faith. "But I was giving out receipts, which didn't suit the nuns, who wanted everything under the counter," he said.